Sfdebris.net

When the Twelfth Doctor mentions something as early days I feel like he was channeling the Fourth Doctor for a moment.

I felt like he was channeling the Fourth a lot, from his second season on.

This Christmas special is now in 3rd place on my personal rating ladder of all 13 Christmas specials to date. No mean feat.

I liked it, especially because I wasn't expecting anything big, bombastic or too adventurous. It was all about Twelve revisiting his past, reminescenting and thinking about what modus vivendi to adopt now that his life as a regeneration is nearing its end.

They had the First Doctor in a guest role, Lethbridge-Stewart's ancestor playing his part in the story, finally an episode about WWI (and given the Christmas Truce element, one that felt fitting and sombre), Twelve meeting up with an early ambiguous antagonist again (Rusty) and saying goodbye to all his main companions (Clara, Nardole, Bill).

I felt the special was quite the perfect ending for the Twelfth. The Eleventh was (on the surface) rather energetic, child-like (for good and ill) and his stories often felt overblown and comical, and his exit mirrored that. The Twelfth was a lot more withdrawn, more introspective and philosophical, more bluntly honest incarnation. He seemed alone even while among friends, and his exploits were more about the slow build-up and intellectual side of things. With that in mind, I think the slower, more sombre, far more quiet goodbye to him in this special was as apt as the somewhat wacky and manic goodbye was apt for the goodbye to Eleven.